XIV

"What a marvelous idea! I was curious about Kali myself! Let's make it a big family meeting! Taras you will joins us as well, won't you?" Asked giddy Gaiya, not reading the mood.

"Oh, err, yes..." Taras was a bit put off with the new development.

"This settles it! Erot will contact you with the arrangements, I'm not exactly sure when I'll be done here, so I might have to impose on you to be flexible."

"Ah, sure, no problem. I'll have to go inform Kali... bye" Nyx disconnected.

Gaiya slowly turned around and looked at the two figures.

"So? Care to explain what is going on?" She asked.

"What do you mean, I've just told you everything." Erot was confused.

"I mean what is going on between you guys? You all might have forgotten, but to me it was like last week. Taras was all doting brother to Nyx, and she adored him, now they are barely making eye contact. And... she never felt it necessary to keep things from you. We are but waves oscillating around our true center throughout time, things wouldn't be this weird unless her center shifted. Why is she avoiding you two?" She demanded raising up pressure.

"We do, and do not really know." Answered Taras in a riddle.

"Well, tell me what you do know."

"When breach happened, we were just concerned with putting out fires, and drifted apart a bit. About a century ago she went on vacation to Ra and came back with a soulmate. We didn't notice when she stopped trusting us, but the distance became apparent when she came back with Kali. After that the more we tried to reconnect, the more she pulled away. Like wrong sides of magnets, we couldn't find a right way to reconnect." Taras said bitterly.

"Okay, this is bad...Let's hope we can open dialogue during dinner." She was massaging her temple, trying to get rid of an awful migraine concocted by all the new developments.

"Are you alright?"

"No, it's a bit too much. Orion members, shouldn't get attached because of the nature of what we do, but it is still difficult to face this... we were family...now my family is in pieces." The pain was growing exponentially.

"Please stop worrying, we will get through this. Should I get medicine?" Taras was growing concerned.

"No, I am going to get into Amrita anyway, it will fix this migraine as well." She replied.

"Who would have thought you'd be needing to get an ambrosia dip just one day after waking up. Nothing like a little rejuvenation to freshen your mind." Erot was trying to lighten the mood.

"Ah, yes, Taras could you prepare Amrita for me please?" She asked.

"Orion, implant biomonitor and drug injection into me. I will need you to monitor my vitals during the council meeting and making sure I don't get a panic attack. Also, connect me to VR while in Amrita, I will need to be updated on current council leaders and major world powers." She instructed.

"I thought you didn't like implants and body modifiers." Erot poked at her with a smirk.

"They are annoying to have to remove before jumping into Dive, so I was too lazy to modify things, and I didn't like that I couldn't just jump in whenever I wanted. This is different, I don't want to freeze up at an important moment, you know that."

"I know, just don't push yourself too much." He said with a smile.

"Spoken like a tue king of moderation. Don't you have things to do? Shouldn't you be going now?" She shooed him away annoyed, migraine was not a good buff to her deteriorating temper.

"Ah yeah, Ill be going now, don't push yourself. Taras I leave her in your care." Erot excused himself, perhaps glad to be out of line of possible fire.

She turned to Taras with a giddy smile:

"So, any hope I can get muscle boost while I'm in?"

"You know that artificial muscle spasms can interrupt your V.R. connection, and it wouldn't even be enough time to rip and heal them." Taras informed.

"Ehh, a girl can hope that there was a break through when she slept." She answered a bit disappointed.

"Shall we proceed my lady?" Taras asked while extending a hand to her for support.

"Yes, thank you friend." She grasped at chocolate-velvet hand twice the size of hers. His iron build made her acutely aware of her feeble constitution. Oh, well, it's not like she's a fighter or anything.

"Please take me to the Amrita department."